The considerable computing capability of the PlayStation 3 has raised interest in using multiple, networked PS3s for various purposes.
PS3 Clusters
The NCSA has already built a cluster based on the PlayStation 2. Terra Soft Solutions has a version of Yellow Dog Linux for the PlayStation 3, and sells PS3s with Linux pre-installed, in single units, and 8 and 32 node clusters. In addition, RapidMind is pushing their stream programming package for the PS3.
On January 3, 2007, Dr. Frank Mueller, Associate Professor of Computer Science at NCSU, clustered 8 PS3s. Mueller commented that the 512 MB of system RAM is a limitation for this particular application, and is considering attempting to retrofit more RAM. Software includes: Fedora Core 5 Linux ppc64, MPICH2, OpenMP v2.5, GNU Compiler Collection and CellSDK 1.1.
Single PS3
Even a single PS3 can be used to significantly accelerate some computations. Marc Stevens, Arjen K. Lenstra, and Benne de Weger have demonstrated using a single PS3 to perform an MD5 hash attack in a few hours. They say: "Essentially, a single PlayStation 3 performs like a cluster of 30 PCs at the price of only one"(in nov 2007)
Using the PS3 to Help Medical Research
On March 22, 2007, SCE and Stanford University expanded the Folding@home project to the PS3. Along with thousands of PCs already joined over the Internet, PS3 owners are able to lend the computing power of their game systems to the study of improper protein folding and associated diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, cystic fibrosis, and several forms of cancer. The software was included as part of the 1.6 firmware update (March 22, 2007), and can be set to run manually or automatically when the PS3 is idle through the Cross Media Bar. The processed information is then sent back to project's central servers over the Internet. Processing power from PS3 users is greatly contributing to the Folding@home project, and PS3s have overtaken all other participating operating systems in teraflops contributed. As of April 23, 2007, more than 250,000 PS3 owners have allowed the Folding@home software to be run on their systems, averaging over 400 teraFLOPS and peaking at over 700. By comparison, the world's most powerful supercomputer, IBM Roadrunner has a peak performance of 1.105 petaFLOPS. The latest report stated that Folding@Home has passed the 1PF (petaFLOPS) mark, of which 800TF(teraFLOPS) are supplied by PlayStation 3 clients.
The Computational Biochemistry and Biophysics Lab in Barcelona has launched a distributed computing project called PS3GRID. This project is expected to run sixteen times faster than an equivalent project on a standard PC. Like most distributed computing projects, it is designed to run only when the computer is idle.
eHiTS Lightning is the first virtual screening and molecular docking software for the PS3. It was released by SimBioSys . as reported by Bio-IT World in July 2008. This application runs up to 30x faster on a single PS3 than on a regular single CPU PC, and it also runs on PS3 clusters, achieving screening of huge chemical compound libraries in a matter of hours or days rather than weeks, which used to be the standard expectation.
References
- ^ "Building Supercomputer Using Playstation 3". Console Watcher.com. 2006-08-28 . http://www.consolewatcher.com/2006/08/building-supercomputer-using-playstation-3 . Retrieved 2006-08-28 .
- ^ "Scientific Computing on the Sony PlayStation 2". NCSA . http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/ .
- ^ "Terra Soft to Provide Linux for PLAYSTATION 3". Terra Soft . http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/news/2006/2006-10-17.shtml .
- ^ "Linux pre-installed on PS3". Terra Soft . http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/store/index.php?submit=hardware&submiting%5Bhardware%5D%5Bsony%5D=1 .
- ^ "Linux clusters". Terra Soft . http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/store/index.php?submit=software&submitimg%5Bhardware%5D%5Bsolutions%5D=1 . Retrieved 2007-06-05 .
- ^ "RapidMind and Terra Soft partner to unleash PlayStation 3 for Linux". RapidMind . http://www.rapidmind.net/News-Jan11-Terrasoft.php .
- ^ "Engineer Creates First Academic Playstation 3 Computing Cluster". PhysOrg.com . http://www.physorg.com/news92674403.html .
- ^ "NC State Engineer Creates First Academic Playstation 3 Computing Cluster". College of Engineering, North Carolina State University . http://moss.csc.ncsu.edu/~mueller/cluster/ps3/coe.html .
- ^ "Sony PS3 Cluster (IBM Cell BE)". Frank Mueller, Associate Professor, College of Engineering, North Carolina State University . http://moss.csc.ncsu.edu/~mueller/cluster/ps3/ .
- ^ Nostradamus
- ^ "Folding@home". Sony Computer Entertainment . http://www.scei.co.jp/folding/en/ . Retrieved 2007-03-18 .
- ^ "PS3 doubles Folding@Home's processing power" . http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=107328 .
- ^ "Folding@Home - Client statistics by OS". Stanford University . http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats .
- ^ BBC N
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